ProMedica is partnering with Goodwill Industries of Northwest Ohio to add a job-training component to its Ebeid Neighborhood Promise in UpTown Toledo.
Goodwill opened a Job Connection Center on Monday in its offices on Madison Avenue through a $300,000 initial commitment from ProMedica, said Kate Sommerfeld, ProMedica president of social determinants of health.
The new center will work hand-in-hand with a financial counseling center in the UpTown neighborhood that helps clients rehabilitate their credit and learn family budgeting, among other key financial stewardship skills, Ms. Sommerfeld said.
One of five counselors in the program will be located at Goodwill’s new Job Connection Center, she said.
The Job Connection Center is Goodwill’s second in Toledo, said Amy Wachob, president of Goodwill Industries of Northwest Ohio.
The other is in the DeVeaux neighborhood and has served more than 200 clients since opening in August, Ms. Wachob said.
The centers help job seekers write resumes, learn basic computer skills, receive job training, and match them with employers in search of workers, she said.
Ms. Wachob said as a partner in the program, ProMedica also will look to place workers going through the job center.
Goodwill is talking with other employers about possible partnerships, including First Solar, she said. The company is planning a second solar panel-making factory at its complex in Perrysburg.
The Ebeid Neighborhood Promise is a 10-year, $50 million initiative by ProMedica to holistically try to improve the health of UpTown residents by assuring access to fresh foods, housing, job training, financial stewardship, education, and a host of other social determinants that affect the health of individuals.
Studies have found that the actual provision of health care comprises a tiny fraction of what determines how healthy people can live. The ProMedica initiative is named for the late philanthropist and glass executive Russell Ebeid.
ProMedica plans to take its findings from UpTown and apply them to other communities where it operates. The health system is the dominant hospital company in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan with 13 hospitals, a health plan, and annual revenue of about $6.1 billion.
Other hospital systems nationally are undertaking similar programs, including Geisinger in Pennsylvania.
First Published December 17, 2018, 7:52 p.m.
